Tagged: Cannabis

The draft cannabis legislation, as written, is better than prohibition. Even without amendment, those inclined to vote should vote for it. There’s still a lot in it that I don’t like though. The prohibition on growers also running retail operations, presumably intended to prevent large commercial grow operations with vertically integrated retailers, will also prevent anyone from running the kinds … Read More

Sally Casswell, Massey University Earlier this month, the New Zealand government released draft legislation for how cannabis could be bought, grown and sold. It is a first glimpse at what New Zealanders will be voting on in next year’s cannabis referendum. Justice Minister Andrew Little said the primary objective of the draft bill was to reduce overall use … Read More

There was an interesting new poll out the other day on public attitudes to marijuana and the possibility of law reform (on which there is to be a referendum at the time of next year’s election). The results certainly took me by surprise. For the record, I don’t have very strong views on the law around marijuana. A couple … Read More

Jerome Sarris, Western Sydney University and Joe Firth, Western Sydney University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. There has been a recent global rise in “green fever”, with various jurisdictions either decriminalising or legalising cannabis. But alongside relaxing the rules comes concern about the health implications … Read More

It’s been a bit of an open question whether legalised marijuana would lead to more or less alcohol use. If the two goods are complements, say if people liked drinking while consuming cannabis, then any increase in cannabis use could yield greater alcohol use. If they were substitutes and people smoked instead of drinking, alcohol use could drop. RAND … Read More

Peter Grimison, University of Sydney For some cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, the thought of joining their loved ones for a meal can be, quite literally, sickening. Nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy can cause devastating physical side effects and wreck a patient’s social and family life. Patients say they find it difficult to manage the expectations of well-meaning … Read More

By Gita Mishra, The University of Queensland After almost four-and-a half decades and from modest beginnings, the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study has evolved into one of the most significant long-term tracking studies (known as longitudinal cohort studies) in the world. It started with just over 1,000 participants, born from April 1972 to March 1973. This cohort … Read More

Another post at the ProMarket blog highlights the cost advantages of medical marijuana, at least in the institutional framework for healthcare currently in use in the US. A new working paper by University of Georgia researchers shows that medical marijuana leads to sharp drops in the number of prescriptions for branded drugs.The paper estimates savings of … Read More

Swiss researchers reveal that the vaporisation of cannabis oil, termed ‘cannavaping’ is a less hazardous way to administer medicinal cannabis compared to smoking, as published this week in Scientific Reports. Vincent Varlet and colleagues used butane gas to extract the psychoactive constituents (cannabinoids) from cannabis, producing butane hashish oil concentrate, which was then atomised using e-cigarettes. By analysing the … Read More

The removal of “legal highs” from shelves in two weeks, and the debate over using animals to test them, has science taking a backseat to politics as political parties line up to score points with the public. “Legal highs” are being withdrawn from the market because they have never been tested in terms of their toxicity (which begs the question … Read More

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